The Guy At Home In His Underwear: Stripping down to help fight cancer

Mark (last name not included) has a new job. It’s this, in a nutshell: stay at home in his underwear for 25 days while under the constant gaze of cameras that will stream his every move — OK, almost every move — to online viewers. ‘The Guy At Home In His Underwear,’ as he will be known online at guyathome.com will also attempt to generate 25,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. If he succeeds, Stanfield’s, the underwear company and sponsor, will give $25,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society to promote awareness of testicular cancer. The Post’s Johnna Ruocco visited Mark at his secret Toronto location to ask a few questions on Wednesday and tried not to look embarrassed when he answered the door.

Q: Why in October, when it’s just starting to get cold?

A: I think you just answered your own question. I walked down here [to the apartment] the other day to drop some stuff off and it was freezing in the morning. And I was like, ‘Hey, you know what? Not being outside for 25 days right now is not a terrible thing.’

Q: What happens when people come to the door, like the pizza guy?

A: He’s going to look a little bit like you did! I’m loaded with food, but I probably will order out a little bit. But for the most part, I’ll be doing my own cooking. … But yeah, that’s exactly it, when someone comes to the door they’re going to be met with me in my underwear. So, good luck to them.

Q: Do you have any protective gear for when you’re cooking?

A: I don’t have any protective gear for when I’m cooking, which I think will be a part of the fun. There’s nothing like frying bacon in your underwear.

Q: What kind of underwear variety do you have?

A: I have a different pair every day for 25 days, so there’s lots of variety. There’s boxer-briefs, and boxers and some that are more brief, different colours, different styles, and I think there’s some long underwear. You asked about the weather, so at some point I’ll be a little more covered. Maybe that would have been a good day to come over.

Q: Is it only once daily that you will be changing?

A: Well, I have a back-up pair, in case of spillage in the kitchen or [if ] something weird happens.

Q: If you have a blind date going on, can we expect to see anything more than PG?

A: Well, a man can dream. I think we’re going to keep it pretty PG in here.

Q: Any specific things you’re going to be doing to get people to ‘like’ you?

A: Well, we’ve got all sorts of stuff planned … we’ve got yoga instructors coming in, we’ve got a mixed martial artist coming in, there’s an actual underwear model that’s going to come in at some point and he’s going to teach me how to really … well, this guy is cut. Similar to me, just slightly better.

Q: What are you going to do for 25 days? Are you going to work from here?

A: My work is getting 25,000 ‘likes.’ I’m going to be on the computer a lot, I’m going to be encouraging chats, I’m going to be encouraging people to spread the word on this. Then everybody that comes in, just try to make it as fun and compelling as I can so that people will watch and talk about testicular cancer. That’s really what the message is about. It’s about bringing awareness for people to check their boys…. I’m a testicular cancer survivor, so this is amazing that people are paying attention.

Q: When did you go through that?

A: About two years ago. It was early detection and I never had to fear for my life…. It gets more complicated if it gets missed. But with testicular cancer it’s really simple. If they find it and if it hasn’t spread, you only need one so they just take one and they give you a fake one. And it works the same, so it’s pretty cool. It’s like an upgrade.